The Reds

Before the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the two nicknames it was given were “The Iron Curtain” and “The Reds.” As propaganda, there were slogans like “Better Dead Than Red” and “Red Dawn” which were used to bring fear to Americans that the US was about to be invaded by the Soviet Union.

Funny about the name “Reds” because shortly after the USSR’s fall, the name was adopted by the media to represent the Grand Old Party (GOP aka Republicans) which is ironic because “red” usually represents revolution. Meanwhile, the Democrats were designated the “blue” party, which usually stands for patriotism.

What really makes this so uncanny is that as the Republicans adopted red as their color, they began to adopt aspects of the Soviet Unions Communist Party, which ran the show. Now, 20 years later, the GOP has devolved into a caricature of the Soviet Union’s dictatorial party. Lets just look at a few of the similarities:

• In the USSR, anyone who voted independently in the rubber-stamp legislature was ousted from the party, followed by political repression that could lead to imprisonment or death. The Republican Party has not gotten that bad, yet.
However, anyone who breaks party ranks on certain social and all tax/budget issues is ostracized from the party and faces opposition funded by their former party. In other words, they are thrown out for independent thinking, for voting the way their constituents or their considered judgment leads them.

• The Republican Party has been taken over by ideologues who view the world through their red glasses, which filter out much of reality. Their site is blinded to the truth of science, expertise, or even widely accepted and acknowledged truth. As just one of many blatant examples of this, look at Arizona Senator Jon Kyl’s statement about lying about Planned Parenthood (in the video) and his lack of retraction once he was called on his erroneous statement. The guy lies based on his ideology rather than dealing with facts. In fact, he probably cant distinguish facts from his opinion. And you know the truism “don’t believe everything you think.”

• Finally, like the Soviet Communist Party, it refuses to work in a cooperative manner with other sectors of the government. Its goal is to overthrow the government as we know it and to replace it with an autocratic government run by corporations.

Just look at all the exclusionary rules the Republicans are trying to impose on voters to keep groups that are likely to vote for democrats away from the polls. These include: refusal to use student cards as IDs, demand that everyone have an ID card to vote, claiming that homeless people don’t have rights of those with housing.

After Gorbachav dissolved the Soviet Union, he called the communist party “The Reds” an illegal, criminal conspiracy. His reasoning was that the party had used its government position to rob the country of much of its wealth in favor of chosen party members. In essence, the Republican Party is doing the same thing with the tax laws they demand, which favor a few million rich over 300 million American citizens who toil every day to make ends meet.

So, what should we do about this? Perhaps the FBI should start an investigation to see whether there are any direct payments to Republican politicians in the forms of contribution right before the budget vote in order to sway them in one way or another. Let me tell you in advance, there were.

“It is as though someone sat down and made a list of every individual on earth who actually did not need emergency financial assistance from the United States government, and then handed them the keys to the public treasure.”

What should be done about this? Once there is some clear connection between campaign funds and votes, some indictments are due. But is Obama ready for this? It turns out the Republicans aren’t the only ones on the bribe train. Yesterday, Obama was in San Francisco for 420, and tonight he will be at a dinner that costs $35,000 a plate for some rubber chicken. He would have to turn himself in as #1, certainly when you make a $35,000 contribution you aren’t doing it out of the kindness of your heart, you are expecting something in return.

Even without the Obama’s efforts, any federal attorney has the right to invoke a grand jury and investigate this situation. Is there one scrupulous or honest federal attorney who is willing to sacrifice his job and start the investigation?

It is about time that some of the pinstripers are given another uniform– horizontal stripes with hard labor.